The present invention relates to a collision object protection assembly, which absorbs an impact upon collision of a vehicle with a collision object, such as a pedestrian, and protects the collision object.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-252140 (paragraphs [0006] and FIG. 4) discloses a collision object protection assembly which inflates and expands an air bag on a vehicle if a collision with the vehicle is detected or predicted, so that an impact force applied to the collision object is absorbed and relieved. This collision object protection assembly includes a cowl top arranged between a vehicular bonnet hood (hereinafter also referred to as a hood for simplicity) and a front window glass, and a retainer accommodating an air bag and positioned below the cowl top so that an upper opening of the retainer is covered by the cowl top.
This collision object protection assembly operates, if a collision with the vehicle is detected or predicted, such that an expansion force of the air bag causes part of the cowl top to be opened in the forward or rearward direction to thereby inflate and expand the air bag on the vehicle.
However, the upper opening of the retainer is covered and closed by the cowl top in the aforementioned conventional collision object protection assembly, and so the inside of the retainer is exposed during the manufacturing process of the vehicle, particularly during the time after the retainer is assembled to the vehicle and before the cowl top is mounted. This allows water, chemicals, foreign objects, and the like to enter the inside of the retainer, which leads to a deterioration of the air bag or the inflator and an inflation and expansion error of the air bag.
Further, when the cowl top is assembled with respect to the retainer, it is necessary to precisely adjust the positions of the retainer and the cowl top such that the upper opening of the retainer is closed. However, because the retainer and the cowl top are separately assembled with the vehicle, positioning of the retainer and the cowl top becomes difficult,heading to a time-consuming assembling operation.
Furthermore, the cowl top is required to have sufficient flexibility so that part of the cowl top is reliably opened by the expansion force of the air bag. Therefore, the cowl top has to be made of an expensive material which prevents loss of its flexibility even at low temperatures, which disadvantageously leads to an increased manufacturing cost of the cowl top.
In view of the above, the present invention seeks to provide a collision object protection assembly, which prevents water, foreign objects, and the like from entering the inside of the retainer, and which enables easy assembling of the retainer and the cowl top, and further which decreases the manufacturing cost of the cowl top.